If you're new to photography (or bird photography in general) this will be an evolutionary process. Take your time and have fun with it. Here are some tips and considerations to get you started.

Background

In Part Two of the series, we worked on setting up and planning for attractive backgrounds - but you still have to pay attention. In the shot of the Black Capped Chickadee above, the distant background provided a nice creamy blur - but it's not perfect. The brown blur over the bird's head wants to draw your attention away from the bird. Always actively look at your background as you're composing the shot, a step or two to the right would have improved this shot tremendously.

Getting Close

Most, but not all, birds will begin to get comfortable with you in their space. To aide in this, sitting (or standing) still and generally being quiet is needed. Limit sudden movements by being more deliberate and slow when you do move - it will ease the bird's tension. Also, sitting in the same spot frequently and for good blocks of time will help the birds adjust to you. I regularly sit within 12-15 feet feet of my closest bird setup with no issues (except be aware of the minimum focusing distance of your lens. This determines how close you can be and still achieve focus). Oh, and one more thing - don't think you can hide. Trust me, the birds know you're there!

Lighting

Needless to say, you want great light for your shots. When you were setting up your backyard birding area, you paid attention to morning and afternoon sweet spots as well as accounted for the movement of the sun over the spring and summer months - so you're all set. Well, not completely. Consider one more technique as the last piece to the perfect shot - fill flash.

Now, this isn't a requirement (you can make great shots without it) but it helps you deal with some of the inevitable shadow areas that can appear on the bird, especially around the eyes, face and breast. In the Bluebird shot above (and many of my other backyard shots) I use fill flash along with an inexpensive adapter called a better beamer to help my light throw farther. When you're ready, brush up on fill flash and take your shots to the next level.

Coloring

Pay attention to the coloring on certain birds to ensure you time your shot correctly. Similar to many ducks, some birds have an iridescent quality to them that varies depending on their angle to the light. What appears to be almost totally black at one angle, can look quite colorful at a slightly different angle. The Tree Swallow above is a good example. Almost dark black over his eye but the same color behind his eye (at a slightly different angle to the sun) is amazing. Pay attention to the light and learn the coloring traits of your birds.

Be Considerate

Don't endanger your birds for the sake of a picture. When birds are very young, it can be safe (in nesting boxes only) to approach and take close-ups - but keep the following in mind:

Mom and dad will fly off - but will return when you leave

Be quick about it, do not leave the box open for any length of time due to temperature considerations

Do not move the box around

Do not move or disturb the actual nest

Do not approach the box after the first week or so. As the birds get older, you could force them into fledging (trying to fly off) too soon and endanger their life.

For birds that are naturally nesting in trees and other places, don't even approach, you could alert predators to their location (where as properly setup nesting boxes are protected) or damage the nest by moving branches or other obstructions around.

Have fun with this new aspect to your photography - it's a very rewarding experience!

A photo friendly habitat makes the job much easier - and it doesn't have to be fancy or expensive. The basic setup below contains all the elements needed for the birds (food, water and cover) and I added a few low cost perching options for my (and the bird's benefit). Keeping an eye open after some spring thunder storms can usually turn up broken branches and chopped up trees. I used one chopped stump that I found and several branches to make up different perching options for my feathered friends.

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In order to be "portable" with my displays and able to change my perches out, I use a potting bucket filled with stones as my base. It keeps everything nice and orderly, mobile and fairly easy to make changes.

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Here are a few more photo friendly environment tips to keep in mind:

Pay attention to your backgrounds. The farther away you can keep them and minimize drastic color changes, the better you'll be. It will help deliver a nice creamy background.

Shoot tight. As you can see in my setup - distractions abound. Shooting tightly allows you to place bird feeders near by (to interest your subjects and encourage them to hang out on your perch) without having these "hand of man" items ruin your shot.

Don't forget the sun location - both now and next month. As the sun moves through the season, it's position will shift slightly - making a flexible shooting environment a must.

In part three, we'll get to the meat of it - making some great bird shots! Stay tuned.

Some Basic Tips

Multiple shots: set you camera to take images as fast as it can - you'll want to select from the best of a sequence

Aperture: it can be hard when you need light, but you don't want to shoot too close to your maximum aperture. With even a single aircraft, you could need 12-20 feet of depth of field to get the entire ship in focus.

Single aircraft: f/8 is minimum, assuming a good distance between you and the aircraft in flight.

Multiple aircraft: f/11 is minimum, but f/14 is a safer choice

Shutter speed:

This one deserves a dedicated post (on its way) but some basics are:

Jets: you've got latitude here, use as fast a shutter as you can

Prop: this is where it gets challenging. You want to see the prop "blur" in your shot. This can require shutter speeds as low as 1/250th or lower. But you need to have your panning technique down cold in order to ensure the aircraft itself is in focus

Harsh light

Most air shows take place during the middle of the day, not much you can do about it. Here are a couple things to look into though:

Evening shows: many air shows will have a Friday night event at dusk - take advantage of these!

Get to the show very early. Usually aircraft will be flying in during the early morning hours, including static displays. This could allow you a shot or two with some good light

Blue Angels

Expose for the aircraft - don't worry if everything else is blown out or blocked up

F-16 climbing

Composition considerations

Leave room to fly into. Don't butt the nose of the ship right up against the edge of your frame

Look for different angles, including aircraft flying away from you - unlike animals or people, there is no "head angle" to worry about!

Falcon . . . weapons hot

Pre-Show Tips

Check on show locations and dates

Especially the time the gates open

Special seating

Some shows (for a price) have VIP seating that can also include shelter and beverages

Flight line seating, get there early

Pay attention to the gate opening time. If you don't have VIP seating, you'll want to get there early to grab a spot right on the flight line

In upcoming posts, we'll also take a deeper look at more advanced considerations

Make sure you remember to plan those "memorable" images to come
How often do you pass by an object or a certain location and say to yourself "wow, this would be a great picture if only ______" ! Fill in the blank: "good light", "cloudy day", "it was wet", "it was dry" . . . . and so on. Well, here's an opportunity to make some of your own luck. Create a "shooters to do list" and add your new found opportunity.

When you find that special something, follow these steps:

Snap a cell phone shot of the scene or object:

If you're using a relatively new phone, not only will you have a reference image (like the opening shot in this post) but you'll have the GPS info embedded, enabling you to find the location in the future.

Use a voice recorder app on your phone (or make paper or mental notes) to note the best shooting direction, lens you'll want to use and what unique elements you'd like to have for the image. In the above tractor image, it was already late fall with some snow on the ground. I visualized an overcast day just after a fresh snowfall so that's the conditions I figured would look the best for this shot. Here are a few examples of elements you may desire for your future plan:

A certain time of the year, like fall - or maybe the dead of winter when everything is barren?

Would the shot be better in early morning or late evening?

Could it be a nice "rainy day" shot?

Should you wait for a foggy morning?

Are you looking for a bright day with shadows just so - or would a totally overcast day be better?

When you return home, build a quick record of your planned "shoot". Doesn't have to be fancy, even just placing the info on a single sheet in a word processor will do. Save it electronically along with a calendar reminder or just print it out and keep your planning file the old fashioned way.

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With a little bit of advance planning when you find something of interest, you'll be able to return at the right time and capture a great photo. The tractor shot below is what I ended up with about four weeks after I took the original cell phone picture and envisioned the "perfect" shot. I also had a ball in the process!

When you go back and look at your awesome image, make sure you can remember what you did!

One of the things that really dives me nuts is when I go back and look at an older image of mine and just can't remember all the tweaks and pokes I did to make it pop. Now this doesn't really apply to the standard raw editing elements (exposure, highlights, shadows, contrast, etc) but it certainly applies to creative edits, especially filters and plug-ins. Now, when I run across the above image two years from now, I can look in the notes field and see that I added a couple special items - first was a recipe I built in Nik Color Efex Pro followed by a Topaz colored sepia filter.

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I created a custom field in my image editing program (Aperture) but you can use standard fields if you'd prefer. "Caption" is probably the easiest, and you can over write your notes when you do a digital export to an online photo gallery. Here are a couple other things to keep in mind:

Label your special effects/filters in the order they are applied, separated by the "+" sign

Don't wait to do it "later", make the note as you apply each unique item

Use a similar schema in PhotoShop layers, title the layer with a descriptive of what you did

Whenever possible, shoot at eye level (or the equivalent in your subjects) to gain interest, perspective and drama. It's comfortable to make pictures from your standing position but that rarely gives you the best angle. Squat, get on your knees, sit or lay down. Like my friend Rick Sammon says "use you camera like a spaceship!"

For the shot in this post, I scoped out a spot on the return ramp and laid down, waiting for the turn,